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Saturday, September 26, 2015

Vatican City, 26 September 2015 (VIS) –
The Pope's second day in New York began with his visit to the United
Nations headquarters, where the Holy See has been represented since
1964 in its status as a Permanent Observer, with the right of
participation without the right to vote.

Upon arrival the Holy Father was
greeted by the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, with his wife and two
children of United Nations workers who have lost their lives in
service, who offered him a bouquet of flowers. The Pope met privately
with the Secretary General who subsequently accompanied him to the
hall to greet the organisation's staff. Francis laid a floral wreath
before the plaque commemorating staff who have lost their lives in
service, recalling that the work performed by United Nations
employees, from experts to interpreters, kitchen staff to security
personnel, constitutes in many respects the “backbone” of the
Organisation.

“Most of the work done here does not
appear in the news”, he said. “Behind the scenes your daily
efforts make possible many of the diplomatic, cultural, economic and
political initiatives of the United Nations, which are so important
in responding to the hopes and expectations of the peoples who make
up our human family. Thank you for what you do”.

The Pope then travelled by golf cart to
the building of the Assembly General where he met, again privately
and individually, with the presidents of the 70th General Assembly,
Mogens Lykketoft (Denmark) and the 69th, Sam Kahamba Kutesa (Uganda),
along with the president of the Security Council, Vitaly Churkin
(Russian Federation).

After these meetings, the Holy Father
entered the Assembly hall where he was greeted with great applause.
After the welcome from the president of the 70th General Assembly and
the Secretary General of the United Nations, he addressed the
Representatives of the Nations, mentioning the praiseworthy
achievements of the United Nations during the seventy years of its
existence, the construction of structures of international human
rights law, and its activity in peace-keeping and reconciliation. He
then turned to the issues of the environment and the social and
economic exclusion of a large proportion of the world's population.
He reiterated that war denies all rights, underlining the need for
tireless recourse to negotiation, and denounced religious
persecution. He also warned against any type of ideological
colonisation and defined drug trafficking as a war which is “taken
for granted and poorly fought”. He emphasised that international
financial bodies must “care for the sustainable development of
countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive
lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to
mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence”.

The following is the full text of Pope
Francis' address:

“Once again, following a tradition by
which I feel honoured, the Secretary General of the United Nations
has invited the Pope to address this distinguished assembly of
nations. In my own name, and that of the entire Catholic community, I
wish to express to you, Mr Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude. I
greet the Heads of State and Heads of Government present, as well as
the ambassadors, diplomats and political and technical officials
accompanying them, the personnel of the United Nations engaged in
this 70th Session of the General Assembly, the personnel of the
various programmes and agencies of the United Nations family, and all
those who, in one way or another, take part in this meeting. Through
you, I also greet the citizens of all the nations represented in this
hall. I thank you, each and all, for your efforts in the service of
mankind.

“This is the fifth time that a Pope
has visited the United Nations. I follow in the footsteps of my
predecessors Paul VI, in1965, John Paul II, in 1979 and 1995, and my
most recent predecessor, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in 2008. All
of them expressed their great esteem for the Organisation, which they
considered the appropriate juridical and political response to this
present moment of history, marked by our technical ability to
overcome distances and frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all
natural limits to the exercise of power. An essential response,
inasmuch as technological power, in the hands of nationalistic or
falsely universalist ideologies, is capable of perpetrating
tremendous atrocities. I can only reiterate the appreciation
expressed by my predecessors, in reaffirming the importance which the
Catholic Church attaches to this Institution and the hope which she
places in its activities.

“The United Nations is presently
celebrating its seventieth anniversary. The history of this organised
community of states is one of important common achievements over a
period of unusually fast-paced changes. Without claiming to be
exhaustive, we can mention the codification and development of
international law, the establishment of international norms regarding
human rights, advances in humanitarian law, the resolution of
numerous conflicts, operations of peace-keeping and reconciliation,
and any number of other accomplishments in every area of
international activity and endeavour. All these achievements are
lights which help to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by
unrestrained ambitions and collective forms of selfishness.
Certainly, many grave problems remain to be resolved, yet it is also
clear that, without all this international activity, mankind would
not have been able to survive the unchecked use of its own
possibilities. Every one of these political, juridical and technical
advances is a path towards attaining the ideal of human fraternity
and a means for its greater realisation.

“I also pay homage to all those men
and women whose loyalty and self-sacrifice have benefited humanity as
a whole in these past seventy years. In particular, I would recall
today those who gave their lives for peace and reconciliation among
peoples, from Dag Hammarskjöld to the many United Nations officials
at every level who have been killed in the course of humanitarian
missions, and missions of peace and reconciliation.

“Beyond these achievements, the
experience of the past seventy years has made it clear that reform
and adaptation to the times is always necessary in the pursuit of the
ultimate goal of granting all countries, without exception, a share
in, and a genuine and equitable influence on, decision-making
processes. The need for greater equity is especially true in the case
of those bodies with effective executive capability, such as the
Security Council, the Financial Agencies and the groups or mechanisms
specifically created to deal with economic crises. This will help
limit every kind of abuse or usury, especially where developing
countries are concerned. The International Financial Agencies are
should care for the sustainable development of countries and should
ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive lending systems
which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms
which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.

“The work of the United Nations,
according to the principles set forth in the Preamble and the first
Articles of its founding Charter, can be seen as the development and
promotion of the rule of law, based on the realisation that justice
is an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal
fraternity. In this context, it is helpful to recall that the
limitation of power is an idea implicit in the concept of law itself.
To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice,
means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute,
permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals
or their social groupings. The effective distribution of power
(political, economic, defence-related, technological, etc.) among a
plurality of subjects, and the creation of a juridical system for
regulating claims and interests, are one concrete way of limiting
power. Yet today’s world presents us with many false rights and –
at the same time – broad sectors which are vulnerable, victims of
power badly exercised: for example, the natural environment and the
vast ranks of the excluded. These sectors are closely interconnected
and made increasingly fragile by dominant political and economic
relationships. That is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed,
by working to protect the environment and by putting an end to
exclusion.

“First, it must be stated that a true
'right of the environment' does exist, for two reasons. First,
because we human beings are part of the environment. We live in
communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical
limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Man, for
all his remarkable gifts, which 'are signs of a uniqueness which
transcends the spheres of physics and biology', is at the same time a
part of these spheres. He possesses a body shaped by physical,
chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and develop if
the ecological environment is favourable. Any harm done to the
environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity. Second, because
every creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic
value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence
with other creatures. We Christians, together with the other
monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a
loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use
creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the
Creator; he is not authorised to abuse it, much less to destroy it.
In all religions, the environment is a fundamental good.

“The misuse and destruction of the
environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of
exclusion. In effect, a selfish and boundless thirst for power and
material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural
resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either
because they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they
lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are incapable
of decisive political action. Economic and social exclusion is a
complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offence against human
rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most
from such offences, for three serious reasons: they are cast off by
society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly
from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today’s
widespread and quietly growing 'culture of waste'.

“The dramatic reality this whole
situation of exclusion and inequality, with its evident effects, has
led me, in union with the entire Christian people and many others, to
take stock of my grave responsibility in this regard and to speak
out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed and
effective solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development at the World Summit, which opens today, is an important
sign of hope. I am similarly confident that the Paris Conference on
Climatic Change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.

“Solemn commitments, however, are not
enough, although they are certainly a necessary step toward
solutions. The classic definition of justice which I mentioned
earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant and
perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum
cuique tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will
which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and
immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural
environment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the
phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful
consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and
tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour,
including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and
international organised crime. Such is the magnitude of these
situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every
temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would
assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are
truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.

“The number and complexity of the
problems require that we possess technical instruments of
verification. But this involves two risks. We can rest content with
the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals
– goals, objectives and statistics – or we can think that a
single theoretical and aprioristic solution will provide an answer to
all the challenges. It must never be forgotten that political and
economic activity is only effective when it is understood as a
prudential activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice and
constantly conscious of the fact that, above and beyond our plans and
programmes, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle
and suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived
of all rights.

“To enable these real men and women
to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified
agents of their own destiny. Integral human development and the full
exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be built up
and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family, in
communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those
areas in which human social life develops – friends, communities,
towns and cities, schools, businesses and unions, provinces, nations,
etc. This presupposes and requires the right to education – also
for girls (excluded in certain places) – which is ensured first and
foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of the
family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and
social groups to support and assist families in the education of
their children. Education conceived in this way is the basis for the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda and for reclaiming the environment.

“At the same time, government leaders
must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum
spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create
and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social
development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three
names: lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual
freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and
all other civil rights.

“For all this, the simplest and best
measure and indicator of the implementation of the new Agenda for
development will be effective, practical and immediate access, on the
part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods: housing,
dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and
drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual
freedom and education. These pillars of integral human development
have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more
generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature
itself.

“The ecological crisis, and the
large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very
existence of the human species. The baneful consequences of an
irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by
ambition for wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a
forthright reflection on man: 'man is not only a freedom which he
creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and
will, but also nature'. Creation is compromised 'where we ourselves
have the final word… The misuse of creation begins when we no
longer recognise any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing
else but ourselves'. Consequently, the defence of the environment and
the fight against exclusion demand that we recognise a moral law
written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural
difference between man and woman, and absolute respect for life in
all its stages and dimensions.

“Without the recognition of certain
incontestable natural ethical limits and without the immediate
implementation of those pillars of integral human development, the
ideal of 'saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war', and
'promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger
freedom', risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse,
idle chatter which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and
corruption, or for carrying out an ideological colonisation by the
imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to
people’s identity and, in the end, irresponsible.

“War is the negation of all rights
and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral
human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war
between nations and peoples. To this end, there is a need to ensure
the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation,
mediation and arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United
Nations, which constitutes truly a fundamental juridical norm. The
experience of these seventy years since the founding of the United
Nations in general, and in particular the experience of these first
fifteen years of the third millennium, reveal both the effectiveness
of the full application of international norms and the
ineffectiveness of their lack of enforcement. When the Charter of the
United Nations is respected and applied with transparency and
sincerity, and without ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference
point of justice and not as a means of masking spurious intentions,
peaceful results will be obtained. When, on the other hand, the norm
is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever it proves
favourable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora’s box
is opened, releasing uncontrollable forces which gravely harm
defenceless populations, the cultural milieu and even the biological
environment.

“The Preamble and the first Article
of the Charter of the United Nations set forth the foundations of the
international juridical framework: peace, the pacific solution of
disputes and the development of friendly relations between the
nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice denying
them, is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms,
especially weapons of mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An
ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and
possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory
and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations, which
would end up as 'nations united by fear and distrust'. There is
urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full
application of the non-proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit,
with the goal of a complete prohibition of these weapons.

“The recent agreement reached on the
nuclear question in a sensitive region of Asia and the Middle East is
proof of the potential of political good will and of law, exercised
with sincerity, patience and constancy. I express my hope that this
agreement will be lasting and efficacious, and bring forth the
desired fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.

“In this sense, hard evidence is not
lacking of the negative effects of military and political
interventions which are not coordinated between members of the
international community. For this reason, while regretting to have
to do so, I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful
situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African
countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic
groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire
to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the
destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious
heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative
either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to
peace by their own lives, or by enslavement.

“These realities should serve as a
grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those
charged with the conduct of international affairs. Not only in cases
of religious or cultural persecution, but in every situation of
conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the
Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan
interests, however legitimate the latter may be. In wars and
conflicts there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men
and women, young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die.
Human beings who are easily discarded when our response is simply to
draw up lists of problems, strategies and disagreements.

“As I wrote in my letter to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations on 9 August 2014, 'the most
basic understanding of human dignity compels the international
community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of
international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent
further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities'
and to protect innocent peoples.

“Along the same lines I would mention
another kind of conflict which is not always so open, yet is silently
killing millions of people. Another kind of war experienced by many
of our societies as a result of the narcotics trade. A war which is
taken for granted and poorly fought. Drug trafficking is by its very
nature accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the
arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption. A
corruption which has penetrated to different levels of social,
political, military, artistic and religious life, and, in many cases,
has given rise to a parallel structure which threatens the
credibility of our institutions.

“I began this speech recalling the
visits of my predecessors. I would hope that my words will be taken
above all as a continuation of the final words of the address of Pope
Paul VI; although spoken almost exactly fifty years ago, they remain
ever timely. I quote: 'The hour has come when a pause, a moment of
recollection, reflection, even of prayer, is absolutely needed so
that we may think back over our common origin, our history, our
common destiny. The appeal to the moral conscience of man has never
been as necessary as it is today. For the danger comes neither from
progress nor from science; if these are used well, they can help to
solve a great number of the serious problems besetting mankind. Among
other things, human genius, well applied, will surely help to meet
the grave challenges of ecological deterioration and of exclusion. As
Paul VI said: 'The real danger comes from man, who has at his
disposal ever more powerful instruments that are as well fitted to
bring about ruin as they are to achieve lofty conquests'.

“The common home of all men and women
must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of
universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human
life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children,
the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those
considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a
statistic. This common home of all men and women must also be built
on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature.

“Such understanding and respect call
for a higher degree of wisdom, one which accepts transcendence,
self-transcendence, rejects the creation of an all-powerful elite,
and recognises that the full meaning of individual and collective
life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and
respectful use of creation for the common good. To repeat the words
of Paul VI, 'the edifice of modern civilisation has to be built on
spiritual principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of
supporting it, but of shedding light on it'.

“El Gaucho Martin Fierro, a classic
of literature in my native land, says: 'Brothers should stand by each
other, because this is the first law; keep a true bond between you
always, at every time – because if you fight among yourselves,
you’ll be devoured by those outside'. The contemporary world, so
apparently connected, is experiencing a growing and steady social
fragmentation, which places at risk 'the foundations of social life'
and consequently leads to 'battles over conflicting interests'.

“The present time invites us to give
priority to actions which generate new processes in society, so as to
bear fruit in significant and positive historical events. We cannot
permit ourselves to postpone 'certain agendas' for the future. The
future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of
world-wide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and
those in need.

“The praiseworthy international
juridical framework of the United Nations Organisation and of all its
activities, like any other human endeavour, can be improved, yet it
remains necessary; at the same time it can be the pledge of a secure
and happy future for future generations. And so it will, if the
representatives of the States can set aside partisan and ideological
interests, and sincerely strive to serve the common good. I pray to
Almighty God that this will be the case, and I assure you of my
support and my prayers, and the support and prayers of all the
faithful of the Catholic Church, that this Institution, all its
member States, and each of its officials, will always render an
effective service to mankind, a service respectful of diversity and
capable of bringing out, for sake of the common good, the best in
each people and in every individual. God bless you all”.

Vatican City, 26 September 2015 (VIS) –
The Memorial at Ground Zero, built at the site where on 11 September
2001 the Twin Towers collapsed after being struck by two aircraft in
a terrorist attack that caused 2,896 deaths, was the second stop of
the Pope's visit to New York. The Memorial is now a park of almost
33,000 square metres with a grove of white oak trees and two
artificial waterfalls that flow into two large pools where the Twin
Towers were previously located. These are surrounded by a low bronze
wall on which there are engraved the names of all the victims of the
attacks on the World Trade Centre on 26 February 1993 and 11
September 2001. Below ground, where the foundations of the Twin
Towers lay, there is a museum commemorating the tragic events.

Upon arrival Francis, accompanied by
Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, archbishop of New York, left a flower
near the waterfall and at the Memorial building where he was awaited
by a rabbi and an imam of New York. He said a prayer for peace, which
was followed by five meditations on peace (Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh,
Christian and Muslim) and a Jewish prayer for the deceased, after
which the Pope pronounced a discourse.

“I feel many different emotions
standing here at Ground Zero, where thousands of lives were taken in
a senseless act of destruction. Here grief is palpable. The water we
see flowing towards that empty pit reminds us of all those lives
which fell prey to those who think that destruction, tearing down, is
the only way to settle conflicts. It is the silent cry of those who
were victims of a mindset which knows only violence, hatred and
revenge. A mindset which can only cause pain, suffering, destruction
and tears. The flowing water is also a symbol of our tears. Tears at
so much devastation and ruin, past and present. This is a place where
we shed tears, we weep out of a sense of helplessness in the face of
injustice, murder, and the failure to settle conflicts through
dialogue. Here we mourn the wrongful and senseless loss of innocent
lives because of the inability to find solutions which respect the
common good. This flowing water reminds us of yesterday’s tears,
but also of all the tears still being shed today”.

He also recalled his meeting with some
of the families of the fallen first responders, and emphasised that
this “made me see once again how acts of destruction are never
impersonal, abstract or merely material. They always have a face, a
concrete story, names. In those family members, we see the face of
pain, a pain which still touches us and cries out to heaven”.
However, he added, “those family members showed me the other face
of this attack, the other face of their grief: the power of love and
remembrance. A remembrance that does not leave us empty and
withdrawn. The name of so many loved ones are written around the
towers’ footprints. We can see them, we can touch them, and we can
never forget them”.

Remembering the firefighters who, on 11
September entered the crumbling towers shortly before they fell,
without considering the risk to their own lives, he spoke about “the
palpable sense of the heroic goodness which people are capable of,
those hidden reserves of strength from which we can draw”. He
added, “This place of death became a place of life too, a place of
saved lives, a hymn to the triumph of life over the prophets of
destruction and death, to goodness over evil, to reconciliation and
unity over hatred and division”.

“It is a source of great hope that in
this place of sorrow and remembrance I can join with leaders
representing the many religious traditions which enrich the life of
this great city. I trust that our presence together will be a
powerful sign of our shared desire to be a force for reconciliation,
peace and justice in this community and throughout the world. For all
our differences and disagreements, we can live in a world of peace.
In opposing every attempt to create a rigid uniformity, we can and
must build unity on the basis of our diversity of languages, cultures
and religions, and lift our voices against everything which would
stand in the way of such unity. Together we are called to say 'no' to
every attempt to impose uniformity and 'yes' to a diversity accepted
and reconciled”.

Francis invited all those present to
pray in silence for peace: “Peace in our homes, our families, our
schools and our communities. Peace in all those places where war
never seems to end. Peace for those faces which have known nothing
but pain”.

“In this way”, he concluded, “the
lives of our dear ones will not be lives which will one day be
forgotten. Instead, they will be present whenever we strive to be
prophets not of tearing down but of building up, prophets of
reconciliation, prophets of peace”.

Vatican City,26 September 2015 (VIS) –
The School of Our Lady Queen of Angels in Harlem has 282 pupils aged
from 5 to 14, of whom 69 per cent study as a result of a scholarship.
The children are from low income families, so-called “dreamers”
(those who follow the American dream), adult or unaccompanied minors
migrating from Latin America (69 per cent), refugees from Africa or
the Middle East, and also African Americans (22 per cent). The school
forms part of a network of six Catholics schools in the Harlem and
South Bronx neighbourhoods, financed and managed by the Catholic
charitable initiative Partnership, coordinated by the archdiocese of
New York, to whom the premises belong. The foundation was formally
instituted in 2010, and aims to break the vicious circle of poverty.

The Pope arrived at the School of Our
Lady Queen of Angels yesterday shortly after 4 p.m. (10 p.m. in Rome)
to meet with the pupils, their families and the teachers who awaited
him in the gymnasium. It was an informal meeting in which the Pope
asked forgiveness from the teachers for taking some minutes away from
the lesson and commented that one of the most beautiful
characteristics of the school was the fact that some of the pupils
come from other places and many from other countries. “That is
nice”, he added. “Even though I know it is not easy to have to
move and find a new home, new neighbours and new friends. At the
beginning it can be hard. Often you have to learn a new language,
adjust to a new culture, even a new climate. There is so much to
learn! And not just at school; so many other things”.

“The good thing is that we also make
new friends”, he continued. “And this is very important. … We
meet people who open doors for us, who are kind to us. They offer us
friendship and understanding, and they try to help us not to feel
like strangers. … Although at times we dream of our homelands, we
meet good people who help us to feel at home. How nice it is to feel
that school is a second home. This is not only important for you, but
also for your families. School then ends up being one big family
where … we learn to help one another, to give the best of
ourselves, to work as a team, which is so important, and to pursue
our dreams”.

“Very near here is a very important
street named after a man who did a lot for other people. I want to
talk a little bit about him. He was the Reverend Martin Luther King.
One day he said, 'I have a dream'. His dream was that many children,
many people could have equal opportunities. His dream was that many
children like you could get an education. He dreamed that many men
and women, like you, could hold their heads high, with the dignity of
one who earns a living. It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able
to fight for them. Do not forget”.

“Today we want to keep dreaming. We
celebrate all the opportunities which enable you, and us adults, not
to lose the hope of a better world with greater possibilities. ... I
know that one of the dreams of your parents and teachers is that you
can grow up and be happy. … It is not always easy. In every home
there are problems, difficult situations, illness, but never stop
dreaming that you can live with joy. Dear children, you have a right
to dream and I am very happy that here in this school, in your
friends and your teachers, you can find the support you need.
Wherever there are dreams, there is joy, Jesus is always present”.

Before leaving, the Pope asked the
children if he could give them some homework. “It is just a little
request, but a very important one”, he said. “Please don’t
forget to pray for me, so that I can share with many people the joy
of Jesus. And let us also pray so that many other people can share
the joy like yours, when you feel supported, helped and advised, even
when there are problems”.

Vatican City,26 September 2015 (VIS) –
The Pope concluded his day in New York with a Holy Mass for peace and
justice in Madison Square Garden, a place synonymous with the city,
as Francis recalled: “The site of important athletic, artistic and
musical events” representing “both the variety and the common
interests of so many different people”. It isa place where “The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”, as
yesterday's reading from the prophet Isaiah tells. The Holy Father
dedicated his homily to this light.

“The people who walked – caught up
in their activities and routines, amid their successes and failures,
their worries and expectations – have seen a great light”,
affirmed the Pontiff, remarking that the People of God is invited in
every historical age to contemplate this light, since one of the
special qualities of the faithful is the capacity to see, amid the
shadows, the light that Christ comes to bring. “With the prophet
today we can say: the people that walks, breathes, lives amid the
smog, has seen a great light, has experienced the air of life”.

“Living in a big city is not always
easy”, commented the Pope. “A multicultural context presents many
complex challenges. Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden
riches present in our world: in the diversity of its cultures,
traditions and historical experiences. … Big cities bring together
all the different ways which we human beings have discovered to
express the meaning of life, wherever we may be. But big cities also
conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong,
or are second-class citizens. In big cities, beneath the roar of
traffic, beneath 'the rapid pace of change', so many faces pass by
unnoticed because they have no 'right' to be there, no right to be
part of the city. They are the foreigners, the children who go
without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless,
the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great
avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of
an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our
eyes, and especially in our hearts”.

However, “knowing that Jesus still
walks our streets, that he is part of the lives of his people, that
he is involved with us in one vast history of salvation, fills us
with … hope which liberates us from the forces pushing us to
isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others, for the life
of our city. … A hope which makes us see, even in the midst of
smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our
city”.

“The prophet Isaiah can guide us in
this process of 'learning to see'”, continued Francis. “He
presents Jesus to us as 'Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace'”. The Pope went on to
explain each of these appellations.

“Wonderful Counsellor. The Gospels
tell us how many people came up to Jesus to ask: 'Master, what must
we do?' The first thing that Jesus does in response is to propose, to
encourage, to motivate. He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go
out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are,
not where we think they should be. … The Mighty God: In Jesus, God
himself became Emmanuel, God-with-us, the God who walks alongside us.
... The Everlasting Father: Go out and proclaim, go out and show that
God is in your midst as a merciful Father who himself goes out,
morning and evening, to see if his son has returned home and, as soon
as he sees him coming, runs out to embrace him. … Prince of Peace:
Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father, walks
at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and
selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us
from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before
us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others,
that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need
as our brothers and sisters”.

“God is living in our cities. The
Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like leaven in
the dough”, concluded Pope Francis. “She wants to relate to
everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels
of the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the
Prince of Peace. 'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light'. And we ourselves are witnesses of that light”.

Today, 26 September, the Holy Father
travels to Philadelphia where he will celebrate Mass with the clergy
and religious of Pennsylvania in the Basilica of St. Peter and St.
Paul, attend a meeting with the Hispanic community and other
immigrants in Independence National Historical Park, and will
pronounce a discourse in Benjamin Franklin Parkway on the eve of the
World Meeting of Families.

- appointed Fr. Zbigniew Zielinski as
auxiliary of Gdansk, (area 2,500, population 965,077, Catholics
900,608, priests 748, religious 689), Poland. The bishop-elect was
born in Gdansk, Poland in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1991. He
holds a doctorate in pastoral theology from the Cardinal Stefan
Wyszynski University of Warsaw and has served in a number of pastoral
and academic roles, pastor of the St. Michael parish and of the
Cathedral of Gdansk-Oliwa and lecturer in sociology of religion at
the state University of Gdansk. He is currently pastor of the
con-Cathedral, lecturer in pastoral theology in the major seminary,
and member of the Commission for canonical visits in the parishes,
the presbyteral council, and the college of consultors. In 2007 he
was named Chaplain of His Holiness.

- appointed Cardinal Carlo Caffarra,
metropolitan archbishop of Bologna, and Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke,
patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as members of the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints.